PALM BEACH, Fla. – Did the children of billionaire developer Donald Trump hold an intervention for their father to get him to tone down his harsh criticism of the president?

The New York Daily News reports the Palm Beacher’s “hatred of Barack Obama allegedly led his three eldest kids to do an Obama-vention before the election.”

The paper says Eric, Ivanka and Donald Jr. had talked with each other about telling their famous father to take the anti-Obama rhetoric down a notch, and then made the collective decision to confront him.

The meeting reportedly took place in mid-October, and a source who knew of the intervention told the Daily News: “The three of them met and went to see their dad in his Fifth Ave. office. They showed a lot of respect, but told him he’s worked too long and too hard to build up the reputation he has. They understand completely he’s always been outspoken and that he likes attention, but this is too much.”

The “kids said they know it’s not helping,” added the source. “They told him you can’t throw this all away on this nonsense. … They want their dad to get respect and then the whole family does well.”

A representative for Trump has denied any such meeting took place, and told the paper, “They would never ever do that. It never happened. It’s simply untrue.”

Trump had also been among the loudest voices pushing for Obama to release his long-form birth certificate.

Then in April 2011, the president released an image of what he claimed to be that document, and Obama said at the time: “I know that there is going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest,” Obama said. “But I am speaking for the vast majority of the American people as well as for the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness.

“We have better stuff to do. I have got better stuff to do. We have got big problems to solve.” “We are not going to be able to do it if we are distracted, we are not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other … if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts, we are not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers.”

“A continuing investigation is needed to identify the identity of the person or persons involved in creating the alleged birth certificate forgery and to determine who, if anyone, in the White House or the state of Hawaii may have authorized the forgery,” Arpaio said at the time.

Trump personally thanked Arpaio for his efforts, writing on a news story about the probe, “Joe – Great going – You are the only one with the ‘guts’ to do this – Keep up the good fight – Donald Trump.”